Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 97875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
“I’ve been told a lot about him,” Skylar managed. “I heard he loved to fly kites.”
“That’s true. That big yellow one . . .”
The static rush in Skylar’s ears drowned out the rest of what Angela said. Yellow kite. The one that was stuck in the tree that Robbie couldn’t get down because of his fear of heights. Robbie’s words drifted back to her while she watched him finish warm-ups and leave the ice, presumably preparing to be introduced and start the game. It’s ridiculous, but as long as his kite is stuck in that tree, I’ll have this weird sense of things being unfinished. Or unresolved. Like he’s out there somewhere missing that damn kite.
Skylar didn’t have a fear of heights. She could get him that kite.
She could do this thing that was important to him and earn her right to say I love you. Maybe then he’d be ready to start dating her again. Because she couldn’t stand being trapped in the uncertainty anymore when she was so sure of Robbie, she felt him in her bones.
“Where exactly is this yellow kite that got stuck in the tree?”
Robbie walked into the friends and family waiting room ready to propose.
No bullshit.
Don’t get him wrong, he’d concentrated as much as possible on the game—and they’d secured the W, bringing the series to 2–1—but he’d be lying if he said he didn’t sneak approximately ten thousand looks at his beautiful girl sitting in the stands with his parents. At this point, his heart was going to tumble out of his fucking chest if he didn’t kiss Skylar and sleep in the same bed as her tonight. Tonight.
No more screwing around. This was serious. He felt ill.
So why didn’t he see her anywhere? Wives, girlfriends, parents, assorted family for the entire roster, down to the equipment manager. No Skylar.
“Where is she? Where’s Skylar?”
His mother drew him down for a kiss on the cheek. “Nice to see you, too. What a joy she is, Robbie. Pure joy. So much heart and sincerity for such a young girl. She left.”
Robbie’s entire chest lurched, like a semitruck slamming on the brakes. “What do you mean, ‘she left’?”
“She said she had something to do.”
Something to do?
Like a date?
Nope. Absolutely not. That was irrational.
Unless he’d waited too long to get his head out of his ass.
Robbie dropped his equipment bag to the floor with a thud, raking a panicked hand through his hair, the pulse in his neck sprinting like a mailman trying to outrun a Doberman. Crouching down, he riffled through the front pocket of his bag, freeing his phone and calling Skylar, his chest seizing at all the heart emojis he’d added to her contact profile when he was drunk on lasagna. He was going to add more later.
She couldn’t have gotten far, right? She’d still been there at the end of the third period. He’d simply ask her to come back, they’d resolve the remaining divide between them and put a permanent end to this separation. That would be that.
Voicemail.
Fuck.
“Skylar, could you please stop whatever you’re doing and come back here, please? Don’t make me look at you all night and not even kiss me afterward. What the hell is that?”
He hung up, stared at his phone. “RING,” he bellowed.
“Robbie, that was a terrible message.”
“Ma, please, I’m in the middle of a crisis. Did she say where she was going?”
“Don’t you think I would have told you by now?”
“She was asking an awful lot of questions about that kite,” his father drawled, still holding a half-drunk beer in his hand. “Wanted to know directions. Logistics. For chrissakes, Angela, you drew her a map on the back of a bar napkin.”
“The kite?” Robbie stood up slowly, but his legs were starting to tingle. “Why did she want to know all that?”
“When she kissed me goodbye, she said she’d see me on Long Island.” His mother laughed, clearly not grasping the gravity of the situation the way Robbie was beginning to do, his stomach squeezing like a lemon. “Maybe she meant sooner than later.”
He called Skylar again, but this time his hand was shaking.
“Hey, Rocket . . .”
“Honey, he calls her Rocket,” whispered his mother, hands clasped beneath her chin. “How adorable is that?”
“Listen,” Robbie continued, his vision starting to turn an ominous shade of gray. “I know this is a long shot, but you wouldn’t be on the way to Long Island, by any chance? Right? To get a kite down out of a tree? No. Right?” His throat was shrinking down to the size of a cocktail straw. This wasn’t an average person he was speaking to. His girlfriend was highly competitive and well versed in challenges just like this one. She’d absolutely make this attempt. Oh my God. “Because that would be a very bad idea, Skylar. That tree sticks out over the edge of a cliff. A cliff, okay? It’s a big drop with a lot of rocks . . . and I’m suddenly very positive that’s exactly where you’re going. But you can’t. You cannot try and get that kite down, please, because you could get hurt and I won’t . . . I can’t even conceive of that without getting dizzy. If something happens to you, it happens to me. Stop the goddamn car, Skylar.” He jabbed his thumb into his eye socket, pacing in a circle. “Okay, I know you won’t. I’m right behind you. I’ll stop you myself.”